Microsoft facility a space to envision future homes

Company's Envisioning Center opened this month

7:51 PM,
Mar. 14, 2013

A woman walks through the Envisioning Center, where Microsoft has built a model home/office to showcase what it thinks are the technological directions/developments that will happen in the next five to 10 years.

Written by

Janet I. Tu
The Seattle Times

Put a skillet on your stove as you prepare to make a stir-fry, and an interactive chef on the big screen in your kitchen tells you a wok would probably work better.

Take a sketch of something you've been drawing on your tablet, and swipe it over to a large digital screen that doubles as your work surface. Then get that sketch to appear on a huge wall screen so that you and a co-worker halfway around the world can work on the sketch simultaneously.

Those are some of the scenarios Microsoft says could happen in the next five to 10 years - and has brought to life now in its new Envisioning Center, which opened ...